SRT board gets new plan on land development

"This plan is not included in SRT’s 10-year rehabilitation plan that was recently approved by the board," SRT chairman Ormsin Chivapruck, who was appointed by the National Council for Peace and Order to restore the state enterprise as his main task, told The Nation last week.

He said that after the SRT board’s last meeting chaired by Army Comptroller Lt-General Anantaporn Kanjanarat, who is chairman of the committee following up on and inspecting state spending, the authority was instructed to do more with its business plan to squeeze out more income to reduce its mounting debt of Bt109 billion, separate from the 10-year rehabilitation plan.

The SRT was scheduled to return the two plans to the board again tomorrow for approval prior to submitting them to the State Enterprise Policy Commission or "Superboard".

"After meeting with SRT high-ranking officials last week, we made the decision to bring our land near the three train stations up for lease," he said.

The plan would be freshly drawn up.

The development plan for those stations was initiated by the previous government and the feasibility study has already been completed, but no project was ever launched because of the political turmoil.

The 270-rai site near Mae Nam Station in Yan Nawa’s Chong Nonsi subdistrict and the 497-rai site near Makkasan Station had high potential to be developed first. The 1,000-rai site near Bang Sue Grand Station would likely come later.

According to the new development plan, the Mae Nam site could be developed as "Bangkok Eye", as it boasted 1.4 kilometres of river frontage.

The Makkasan site, a landmark of Bangkok, would reserve about 200 rai for a public park.

The SRT was also studying a monorail project linking the Mae Nam and Makkasan stations.

The Bang Sue site on kilometre 11 of Phaholyothin Road would be the hardest to develop because it was occupied by residences of SRT officials. The authority would have to move them to new areas first, but still in the same vicinity, then that plot would be open for development. By doing this, the SRT would have to conduct a public hearing, likely resulting in a delay.

However, the SRT has hired a team of consultants to do a new feasibility study on a ramp-on, ramp-off construction project to and from the Srirat-Chaeng Wattana Expressway to the Bang Sue site after the Expressway Authority of Thailand agreed to the project recently.

As for the investment model, conceptually the SRT would open the development to any interested parties with proposals of business plans, including desired rate of return, concession period, land use terms and the expected benefits that would accrue to the SRT.

"If the plan is approved, the SRT is expected to issue the terms of reference for the projects early next year and construction should start next year. The projects could take five years for development," he said.

These projects should generate income for the SRT and help reduce the debt burden.

The SRT posted a Bt13.22-billion loss in the fiscal year ended September 30, only slightly improving from its Bt13.58 billion loss in 2013.

The SRT posted a Bt2.5 billion operating loss. Expenses were weighed down by pension compensation and depreciation.

"What we can do is to either reduce spending or increase income or both," he added.